Tears of an Angel
by Lady GreyWolf
Summary: The sequel to "How To Mend a Broken Heart". Carlisle and Ashley are engaged and everything seems to be going right for them. But then people are found dead, Ashley gets a number of seizures and Carlisle sees his world once again falling apart...
1. Chapter 1

_ SHORT RESUMÉ OF __**How to Mend a Broken Heart**__ (though I recommend you read it before reading this one):_

_ Esme is killed by a vampire while out hunting with her four adoptive children. Wishing to leave the place where it happened, Carlisle moves his family to Dartmouth, UK. A few months later they get a new neighbour, Ashley Tyler._

_ Against Edward's will, the other Cullens get closer and closer to her and Carlisle finds himself falling for the human girl. Not until Raver, an old "friend" of Carlisle's, shows up, Edward is able to accept that Ashley is now part of the family and after finishing up with the other vampire, Carlisle asks Ashley to stay with him forever._

"Ashley, what about this one?"

"Alice…"

"What?" the black-haired girl said and acted surprised. She held up the magazine in front of Ashley's face.

"You would look great in this! Admit it; it would be perfect for an autumn-wedding…"

"Alice, we have been engaged for two months and we have not set a date for the wedding yet", Ashley protested and tried to concentrate on the thick book in her lap.

"Oh, you have", Alice said and grinned. Ashley looked up.

"What, you've got a vision or something?" she asked.

"Well, when I said _autumn_, you thought of a certain date and…" Alice said and twinkled.

"Yes, the day that I first saw Carlisle, when I arrived in Dartmouth", Ashley groaned. "What else do you think I relate to autumn nowadays?"

"Hm, you're right, how about a spring-wedding, then?" Alice asked and flipped the pages in the wedding-magazine. "Oh look, that would be so perfect!"

She held up the page she had found and Ashley saw a woman with dark hair wearing a long gown that shimmered in pink.

"You would look so good in it!" Alice continued. "And then we could have rose-petals in the same colour falling over the two of you…"

"Alice!" Ashley exclaimed. "Please, I have to study for the test tomorrow."

"Don't worry, you'll get a top grade", Alice said and pulled up her legs.

"Yes, but only because I have decided to study. What if I decide not to?"

"Then you will get a top grade as well", Alice answered. "Ashley, you have been studying for the past four days, reading that book over and over again. You know it perfectly by now, I assure you! Come on, look at this. Imagine yourself in it."

Ashley sighed and put the book away, trying to concentrate on the picture once again.

"You think Carlisle would like it?" she asked.

"Ash, he loves you in anything and this one would make his knees buckle!"

Ashley blushed slightly.

"Well, whatever you say looks good, Alice. You've got way more time for this than I have."

"Yep, that's why you'll put me in charge of fixing everything until your wedding", Alice said with a new grin.

"When we decide a date, I'll keep that in mind", Ashley said with a smile and reached for the book once again. Suddenly Alice was on that side of her to snatch the volume away.

"No more of that today", she said.

"What? Give it to me!"

Ashley rushed up and tried to grab it from the agile and fast pixie-like vampire. An impossible task, of course, but she could not help being nervous about the test. And she needed a top grade.

Alice was standing in the doorway that led from the living-room to the hall, waving the book over her head and grinning. Ashley lounged forward but, of course, Alice jumped away so fast that she was a mere blur to Ashley's human eyes. Instead she found herself falling towards the floor. A pair of strong, pale hands caught her just in time and pulled her up again.

By looking at the coat, she could have guessed that it was him. Her fiancée, the talented and famous doctor Carlisle Cullen. He smiled at her before looking at Alice.

"What is going on?" he asked, even though he had probably heard a lot of the previous conversation due to his excellent hearing.

"Nothing", Alice answered with a grin, before placing Ashley's book on the table and skipping away from the room.

"You're alright?" Carlisle mumbled in Ashley's ear.

"Yeah, I'm just stressed out by the tests", Ashley sighed. Carlisle placed a soft kiss on her brow.

"Don't be, I know you'll do great."

She smiled at him before he let her go and disappeared up the stairs. Grabbing the book yet again, Ashley sank down on the sofa, but she found it hard to concentrate on the words now that Carlisle was close yet again. Bella had said that she had had the same trouble with Edward earlier, while she was still human. It was one of the many effects that vampires had on them.

And sure enough, a mere minute later Carlisle appeared in the door once again, walking into the room in human speed and sitting down next to her.

"What's this?" he said, grabbing the magazine that Alice had left behind.

"Alice insisted that I'd look through it", Ashley answered, trying to seem like she was fully concentrated on the book in her lap. In the corner of her eye, though, she saw Carlisle smile as he looked at the pictures.

"She wants to plan the wedding, doesn't she?"

"Yep."

"She did plan Edward's and Bella's wedding", Carlisle continued.

"You are trying to make me say that she can do it", Ashley said and looked at him. Carlisle smiled.

"Well, it would make it easier for you", he said. "You've got school, Ashley, she has already taken all of her current courses before."

"I know", Ashley muttered and returned to the book. She hesitated when Carlisle gently placed an arm around her shoulders.

"You do not have to decide anything right now, Ashley", he said softly. "The most important thing is that we're together. Nothing is going to change that."

"What about the Volturi?" Ashley asked silently, looking at him. He frowned.

"Raver said that they would not let this go on forever, that they were keeping an eye on you and would not allow you to expose the vampires to a human... to someone like me."

"I would never allow the Volturi to get close to you", Carlisle answered, his voice stern. "They would have to kill me first."

"What if they do?" Ashley whispered. "I cannot have you die because of me, Carlisle."

"And I will not let you die because of me", Carlisle answered sharply. "Whatever happens, Ashley, we are in this together and we will get through it, together."


	2. Chapter 2

_Really, really sorry for the long lack of chapters! Hope that this chapter will make you want to stay with the story :)_

One of the things that Ashley had allowed Alice to convince her to do was to plan a party for her fiancée.

"We haven't really had a chance to celebrate our victory over Raver, or your engagement, or anything really", the shorter vampire said and climbed into her car. Ashley rolled her eyes and climbed into the backseat while Bella took the one next to Alice.

"So, why not just celebrate it all on Carlisle's birthday?"

"I still don't understand why we have to go to Plymouth and shop for this feast", Ashley said. "I mean, I'm the only one who's going to eat anything and I'm happy with a sandwich."

Alice grinned as she started her car and drove away.

"You'll see."

Ashley later made a note to self; never ever let Alice drag you along unless you know exactly what you will be doing.

Because Alice stopped right by a store that sold wedding-gowns, a sight that made both Ashley and Bella groan.

"Alice, we still haven't..."

"Oh, I know", Alice interrupted and waved off the excuse as she dragged her through the golden doors of the store. They were immediately met by a female shop-assistant who eagerly listened to exactly what Alice was looking for.

"Word of advice; just let her do all the talking", Bella muttered in Ashley's ear right before the two others dragged her away.

Ashley felt how her head started to spin as the pile of dresses grew. What the hell was Alice up to? She and Carlisle hadn't decided a date for the wedding yet and they were already checking dresses? There was no way that Alice would be pleased with the result if they choose the wrong date – then the dress would be too old-fashioned for her taste.

At least Bella tried to be sympathetic, but unable to speak due to the constant chatter that took place between Alice and the shop-assistant (whose name was Kate) she used her face to show that she knew exactly how Ashley felt as she was forced to try one dress after the other.

"That's it!" Alice suddenly exclaimed. Ashley blinked, wondering if the fitting was finally over. The look that both Alice and Bella gave her indicated that it was and Kate brought one of the large mirrors over so that she could look for herself.

The sight even took her breath away. The gown was simple to start with; shaping itself around her breasts and stayed up without straps, before falling down in a slightly wider skirt, but around her waist was a red ribbon, rising slightly at the front only to turn sharply back to its old place once it had touched her heart, and on one side of the skirt was a pattern of red roses.

"Alice, you've outdone yourself", Bella muttered as she came up to stand beside them.

"I know", Alice said and smiled. "What do you think, Ashley?"

Ashley slowly raised her right hand to touch the place where the ribbon touched her heart and the small, red stone that was attached there.

"It's amazing", she admitted and found herself smile. Alice looked pleased.

"But I'll never be able to afford it", Ashley continued, turning towards her friends.

"Of course you will", Alice huffed. "Carlisle has already offered to pay for the whole thing."

"What? He shouldn't have to..."

"Look, he wants to do it", Alice interrupted. "I'm quoting him when I say that he will be repaid thrice when he 'sees you walking down the aisle'."

Ashley blushed and looked at Kate, who had just come back from fetching a veil. She helped Ashley put it on and then turned her towards the mirror once again. _Oh God_, Ashley thought, _this is what I'll look like when I marry him_. And she found herself close to tears, knowing that whatever day they choose she would remember it as the happiest moment of her life.

"Ashley, your cell-phone", Bella said, interrupting her thoughts. "It's Carlisle."

Ashley immediately grabbed the phone that Bella handed her and answered it.

"Hi Carlisle!"

"Ashley..."

She felt a cold hand gripping her throat as she heard him say her name like that. This was not good, this was definitely not good. She even looked at Alice for confirmation and noticed that her friend looked terrified.

"Carlisle, what's wrong?" she asked silently as Bella pulled Kate away, followed by Alice, to give her some privacy. "What's happened?"

"Ashley, I'm sorry..."

"Carlisle, what's happened?"

"It's your father... he's dead..."

Carlisle had had the morning-shift that day and had forced himself to leave Ashley in the middle of the night to go to _Dartmouth & Kingswear Hospital_, where he nowadays worked. He knew that Alice would want to drag Ashley along on a shopping-tour this day, which was why he really hated to leave; the longer he could keep Ashley from experiencing a shopping-frenzy with Alice the better, as Alice probably only had the wedding in mind. But now he had no choice but to go to work and let the girls do whatever they wanted to do – or whatever Alice wanted them to do.

The morning had been very quiet; not many patients had been brought in and Carlisle found himself in his office for most of the time, reading through some reports and journals of the patients they had.

For some reason he had decided to turn on the radio as the morning progressed. It wasn't his usual habit; he liked to read through his papers in silence, but today he had turned it on.

At around ten, the newsflash started.

"_New traces of an old life in Dartmouth has been found at... today, Plymouth holds its yearly... the Denver County race is taking place..._"

Carlisle listened only briefly to each headline, not hearing anything that interested him.

"_Not more than two months after his colleague's passing, Harold Tyler, head of the company _Raver & Tyler Corporations_, was found dead this morning_..."

Carlisle yanked his head up from the papers he'd been studying and turned up the volume, despite being able to hear the voice perfectly already.

"_The first diagnose is that he died from a heart-attack. His wife, Diane Tyler, woke up to find his side of the bed empty. Instead he lay by the sofa out in the living-room. Mrs Tyler has refused to speak about this right now_."

He turned off the radio as quickly as he had turned it on, rose and walked over to the window, while pulling up his phone from his pocket. Having Ashley's number on speed-dial, he soon found himself waiting for her to answer.

Four signals later, he heard her voice at the other end of the line.

"Hi Carlisle!"

She sounded so happy. Obviously she hadn't heard the news, which surprised him; Alice should have seen this happening as she was so close to Ashley already.

"Ashley..." he said, trying to find the right words. The silence that followed indicated that she knew that something was wrong.

"Carlisle, what's wrong? What's happened?"

Her voice was worried and Carlisle found his own voice shaking as he replied.

"Ashley, I'm sorry..."

"Carlisle, what's happened?"

"It's your father..." he begun, speaking slowly. "He's dead..."

_I wanted to write a bit about what Carlisle was doing as well, hope you liked that. Next chapter is on the way!_


	3. Chapter 3

Neither of them spoke during the long drive to London. Carlisle kept his eyes fixed on the road, Ashley kept her own closed, fighting back the tears.

Alice and Bella had driven her home to Dartmouth at once, where Carlisle was waiting. He hugged her close once she stepped out of the car. As she had cried against his chest he had murmured an old lullaby to soothe her, but he hadn't told her to stop. Instead he had placed her in the front seat of his black Mercedes once she had no more tears to cry and set sight on the capital.

It no longer mattered to Ashley that they were going way past the speed-limit; she knew that Carlisle would be able to avoid any kind of danger on the darkening road. Honestly, she didn't really care about anything anymore. Her father was dead and she hadn't been there with him; she had always imagined that he would die of old age and that she would be standing by his bed and hear his final words, be able to say good-bye to him.

Some time during those long, dwindling thoughts she must have fallen asleep, because when she opened her eyes again it was completely dark and the clock on Carlisle's wrist said 20.34. He was driving at a slower pace now, indicating that they were in London. Ashley raised her head and looked out through the windows. She recognized the street; they weren't far from her old home. She swallowed and felt Carlisle reach out and take her hand, a comforting gesture.

Her mum answered the door at once. Diane Tyler was short but thin, with a few streaks of white in her blond hair and the same dark-brown eyes as Ashley.

"Ashley", she said and embraced her daughter. "Oh Ashley, I've missed you. And who is your friend?"

She forced a smile.

"I'm Doctor Carlisle Cullen, Mrs Tyler", Carlisle said and shook Diane's hand.

"Oh", Diane said, before she turned towards her daughter with yet another smile. "Your father would have loved to see you with someone, Ashley."

She turned around and walked before them into the dining-room. Ashley frowned and shot Carlisle a surprised look.

"She is trying to live like nothing has happened", Carlisle said silently. "I've seen it before, it's nothing unusual."

Ashley nodded slowly and followed her mum into the dining-room, where Diane had taken out three cups and a plate of cookies.

"Mum, are you alright?" Ashley asked carefully.

"Well, of course, darling", Diane said and smiled again. "What kind of tea would you like, Mr Cullen?"

"Mum, stop it", Ashley ordered. Diane blinked.

"I... I know that this was a big shock for you... it was for me as well, but... please, mum, this isn't you."

Diane blinked again, before she put down the tea-pot on the table and leaned against it for a while.

"I don't know what to do, Ashley", she whispered. Her daughter immediately embraced her and the two women stood like that for a while, comforting one another while crying silently. Carlisle remained in the background.

"What happened, mum?" Ashley asked when they sat around the table somewhat later, drinking tea (Carlisle had politely declined the offer).

"I woke up when Harold's telephone set off the alarm and was... surprised when he did not turn it off", Diane begun. "When I saw his side of the bed empty I knew that something was wrong, so I got up at once and walked out to the living-room. And there he lay; completely still on the floor next to the sofa. His face was twisted as if he had died in pain... it was horrible..."

She looked up and turned towards Carlisle.

"What I do not understand is that I sleep very light. Should I not have woken up if he had fallen on the floor or screamed?"

"That would have been more logical, yes", Carlisle admitted, frowning. "Do you mind showing me where he lay?"

Diane froze for a moment, then nodded and rose, leading them to the living-room. Everything was exactly as Ashley remembered it; the large, red sofa close to the tall windows, the three book-cases made of dark wood, her father's favourite chair. Except for that now this room was the room where her father had died.

Diane pointed at the sofa with a shaking hand and Carlisle walked up to it, kneeling even by the place where Harold Tyler had been found. His brow was still set in a deep frown.

"He never goes up before his phone goes off", Diane said silently.

"And if he had fallen you would have heard it", Carlisle said thoughtfully and knocked on the wooden floor with his finger. The sound seemed to echo through the room.

After a while, Carlisle rose and brushed off.

"I'll head to the hospital and talk with some of the doctors there concerning this", he said. "I have an idea of what has happened, but I need to hear their diagnosis."

Diane nodded and walked into the dining-room yet again. Ashley remained behind with Carlisle.

"What is this?" she mumbled.

"I need to find out more before I can be sure", Carlisle answered and looked at her. "Stay with your mother, Ashley. She needs some company."

He smiled and kissed her on the lips, before he disappeared out into the hallway. Moments later the door closed behind him.

Ashley sat down by the dining-table opposite her mother, listening to the Mercedes engine disappearing down the street.

"When is the big day?"

She looked up in surprise, noticing a faint smile on her mother's face. The older woman then nodded towards her engagement-ring.

"Your father would have loved to attend your wedding, Ashley", she said. "He would have loved seeing the two of you together; even in a situation like this you look so perfect for one another."

Ashley blushed.

"We haven't actually decided on a date yet", she said. "Alice keeps bugging me about it all the time?"

"Alice?"

"Carlisle's daughter", Ashley said and decided to give the whole cover-story. "Carlisle is thirty-three, mum, and he married young but he and his wife soon found out that they couldn't have children. So they adopted a few teenagers who had run into some trouble. And then Esme, his wife, died in an accident, so they moved to Dartmouth to get away from it all."

She managed to smile.

"There are six children, mum, and they are dating one another, since they are adopted. There's Emmett and Rosalie, who have already moved out, and Edward and Bella, and Alice and Jasper. Alice loves to plan parties and she loves everything about weddings, so she wants to plan mine and Carlisle's."

"Once all of this is over, once it gets easier, I would love to sit down with that young lady and help her with it", Diane said. "No doubt she's got school to think about."

It surprised Ashley how well her mother seemed to handle the story; she had always expected Diane to freak out about how much older Carlisle was (no doubt she would have freaked out even more if she knew his exact age), that he had a family already, and tons of other things.

"I'll make sure to tell her that", she said, then looked out through the dark window once again.

**Author's note: reviews are luv! Honestly, they are my inspiration and my strength, so if you like the story and want to read more, please post a review!**


	4. Chapter 4

**Thanks for all the amazing reviews!**

**And I know that some of you reacted on that Ashley's mother did not really react that much to Carlisle being older… well, there is a reason for that ;) mohaha, Wolfie likes to tease!**

**Anyway, on with the story!**

His hands gripped the steering-wheel so hard that he had to force himself not to break it. If he had had a beating heart, he imagined that it would be hammering against his chest in a frantic pace.

Of course he realized that he was panicking, but that didn't exactly stop his thoughts from racing back and forth, making him even more anxious than he already was.

He parked the car right next to St Thomas Hospital. A brown-haired doctor was already running down through the doors to meet him; since he had called the hospital telling that he was on his way, the word of the 'talented Doctor Cullen's arrival' had obviously spread quickly.

"Doctor Cullen, we are so glad that you are here", the man said and shook his hand. Carlisle realized that he looked haggard and guessed that the hospital had received a number of calls from people wondering about the death of Mr Tyler.

"Thank you for letting me come and see him", he responded, then headed into the hospital itself. While they walked down to the morgue, the doctor, Mr Donalds, filled him in on everything that they had found out so far.

"He died in pain, sure enough, but his throat was blocked, enabling him from screaming. We haven't found something that could have blocked it, though, and there were no marks on his throat either, so we've ruled out that he was strangled..."

"Are you assuming that he was murdered?" Carlisle asked and made sure that his voice was even and calm despite the terror that rushed through his body. If he was correct in his own, private assumptions, what had happened to Mr Tyler would affect a lot more people.

"Well, considering Mrs Tyler's tale of how she wakes up at the smallest sound, that is the most plausible idea", Mr Donalds answered. "Still, there are no marks on the body, nothing in the apartment that could indicate that someone did this to him. It's as if he just lay down, twisted his face and died."

Carlisle nodded and suppressed the urge to run the last part of the way to the body. It was easy for him to tell which body was Mr Tyler's, despite it being covered; it smelled just like it had done in the apartment he had just visited.

"We'll appreciate if you could give your thought on things", Mr Donalds said, wiping some sweat from his face before he pulled away the cover from the corpse.

Despite having seen so many dead bodies before, this one made Carlisle feel like vomiting. If he had still been human he probably would have and he guessed that at least some of the younger doctors would have done it when facing this. Harold Tyler's face had, despite the lack of life, not slacked back into a peaceful expression. It was still twisted in pain; mouth open in a soundless scream, teeth bared, eyes shut tightly close. As if he had been turned into a statue.

Carlisle resisted the urge to touch the face to make sure that it was made of flesh and not of stone or wax.

"Well?" Donalds asked from the other side of the body, his eyes fixed upon the other doctor.

"I've read about this, once", Carlisle admitted, the words burning his throat as he spoke them. "Face not reassuming the peaceful, natural expression after death, but staying in pain; the priests used to call it the 'demon face'."

"I cannot recall having heard of it", Donalds said, his forehead wrinkled as he stroke his short beard thoughtfully.

"It was quite usual down in Italy during the 17th century, it was said that the disease had spread north after that but no reports were found."

He looked away from the body.

"Do you know if Mr Tyler had any seizures?" he asked solemnly.

"Well, his record indicate that, truly", Donalds admitted. "Are they a part of the disease?"

"They are", Carlisle said, his hands curling into fists in his pockets. "According to this old volume I read, the ones infected with 'demon face' were often under a sheer amount of pressure, or stress. This caused them to have seizures, which, eventually, lead up to their death. It was also presumed that it could only be transferred... it only ran with the family."

He forced himself to stand still, despite the urge to rush back out to his car and drive back to the apartment, get Ashley and pray that this was all just a dream. Considering that he didn't dream, his logical mind pointed out, he would feel just as horrible then.

"Dear Lord", Donalds muttered. "Do you have any idea how to test this disease, or how to cure it?"

"No, there wasn't much about it", Carlisle answered. "No treatment... no cure."

"Well, then we can only hope that his poor daughter doesn't get it as well."

Carlisle didn't answer. He knew perfectly well that Ashley had it.

Because, of course, there was a reason why he knew about the disease but no one else did. He had read about it when he lived with the Volturi-coven. They had the only information about it, because it was the only disease that vampires could get.

It was also the only disease that they could die from.

Which indicated that Mr Tyler had been a vampire.

"Doctor Cullen?" Mr Donalds said, waking him up from his thoughts. "You look significantly pale, are you alright?"

"I'm sorry", Carlisle said, not caring that his voice was rushed. "But I have to go."

He hurried back upstairs and out to his car before Mr Donalds was able to stop him. All the while his mind kept wandering.

Mr Tyler must have been a vampire, but since he lived with humans he must either have been able to control himself or he had been a vegetarian, just like himself. He had similar features to Ashley, which indicated that Ashley was his daughter genetically.

This intrigued him; he had never known that his kind was able to produce children.

Also, Diane Tyler was definitely human. Had she known that her husband was a vampire?

Or was he really a vampire?

Carlisle realized that if he had just thought about if Ashley could be a half-vampire, could not Mr Tyler be the one to be a half-breed? If that was even possible, he must have looked and acted a lot more human than any vampire would be able to, ensuring that he wasn't discovered.

And still he had been the companion of Mr Raver, the one who had changed Carlisle all those years ago. Considering that Raver hadn't been too fond of vampires who did not act like vampires, how could Mr Tyler have been so close to him?

"God, this is madness", he whispered to himself as he kept driving.

He parked the car outside Mrs Tyler's apartment. He could see that the light was still on in the kitchen and he was able to see Ashley through the window. She seemed to be talking to her mother.

He hurried upstairs and knocked on the door. The sound of a chair being pushed back told him that Ashley would be greeting him.

The door opened and before she was able to say anything, he wrapped his arms around her and held her close.

"I'm so sorry", he whispered, his voice trembling. "Ashley, I'm so sorry."

She asked what had happened, asked him over and over again, but he didn't answer. He shut himself away and focused on nothing but inhaling her smell, making sure that he would remember it forever.


End file.
